The family of Jeffrey Hodgson,
a British tourist that disappeared on 8th July 2001, have returned
to the island this week to initiate a fourth search since their son's disappearance
four months ago.

10,000 posters in English
and Spanish offering £1,000 (approximately 260,000 pesetas) compensation to
anyone who comes forward with information about Jeffrey's whereabouts, are being
distributed all around the island.

"As long as Jeffrey
is missing we will be returning to the island. Until his body is found we will
not accept that our son is dead", said Jeffrey's father.

The 38-year-old, who has
a mental age of 12 and suffers from epilepsy, went missing from a hotel in Cala
Llonga after discovering that he was in Ibiza instead of the Costa Blanca, the
families usual holiday destination.

Even though the Spanish authorities
organized various search parties (including sniffer-dogs and helicopters) in
the days following Jeffrey's disappearance, the family doesn’t think that enough
effort has been made by the local police to find their son.

Hodgson's family has now
set-up a website in three languages hoping for some information. If you, or
any of your friends know anything about the disappearance of this young man,
please contact the family on the following website: www.wheresjeffrey.org or
inform the local police.

Terrorist fears hit Ibiza

A false alarm at Ibiza's
airport caused the evacuation of flight IBE 1763 destined to fly to Barcelona
at six o'clock on Monday 15th October.

As the 138 passengers were
boarding the plane, a French woman overheard two men of Arabic decent say: "They
don't know what is waiting for them, they are all going to die on this plane".

The French passenger, fearing
that the two men were terrorists, alerted the stewardess who informed the captain
of the plane.

The crew made the decision
to evacuate the plane immediately and postpone the Barcelona flight.

The Tedax unit (special bomb
squad) from the Guardia Civil (Civil Guards) accompanied by various police officers
and the captain of the Policia Local (Local Police) searched the plane and the
passengers luggage and arrested the two men who were Belgium’s of Arabic descent.

The two men, originally feared
to be part of a terrorist organization, were submitted to interrogation by the
local police officers.

The police then revealed
that the two men were not terrorists and had decided to play a joke on the other
passengers, thinking that no one would understand their comments as they were
speaking French.

After a three-hour investigation
to confirm that the two men were telling the truth, all the passengers, except
the two suspects, were allowed to board their flight once again. Flight IBE
1763 departed from Ibiza airport at 10:30pm, four and a half-hours late.

It was later revealed that
the two suspects worked in the baggage-handling department for the Belgium airline
‘Sabena’.

'Sabena' has since released
a statement declaring that the two employees have lost their jobs as a result
of the incident.

'Sabena', which is going
through an economical crisis as a result of the September 11th tragedies
in the United States, condemns the comments made by their two former employees
as "cruel and disrespectful as well as giving the company a bad image".

On Wednesday 17th
a spokesperson for 'Sabena' said: "The two men will be put on the passengers
'black list' and in future they will find it very difficult to fly as companies
will not accept them as passengers".

On the same day, a flight
from Palm to Stuttgart (Germany) had to be grounded at the German airport when
a stewardess discovered a suspicious powder on board the plane.

The fear of anthrax caused
the LTU plane to be grounded for many hours until it was confirmed that the
powder didn't contain anthrax.

1st January
is looming and so is the Euro

If you have been shopping
recently in the bigger stores on the island you will have noticed price labels
in Euros with a small equivalent in pesetas hidden in the bottom corner. If
you feel confused, don't worry you are not alone.

Already Ibicencan businesses
have started to consider where they will stand after the peseta is replaced
by the Euro.

The CAEB (Balearic Business
Administration Company) has already started working out the pros and the cons
of the new European currency.

CAEB has discovered that
one of the most negative aspects of the introduction of the Euro is the amount
of money that each business will have to spend on new computer programmes and
courses in order to accustom their staff to the new currency.

Accountancy systems that
work with decimals will be a priority for all businesses.

The short period of time
when the peseta and the Euro coexist will also cause extra expenses to businesses,
according to CAEB.

Although it may all seem
very confusing at the start, the CAEB assures us that the Euro will have a general
positive effect on the Balearic economy.

A natural cure

PharmaMar, a company in charge
of locating and extracting "ecteinascidea turbinata" (ET-743), a micro-organism
found in the sea just off Formentera (which has been proven to prevent the on-set
of tumours) have in the past eight months recovered a total of 20 tons of ET-743.

PharmaMar's director, Santiago
Bueno says: "Even though it isn't easy to extract the substance, the results
will definitely be worth while".

In order to increase the
growth of the micro-organisms, special production techniques are being used
to increase the sea's temperature by 1 degree.

PharmaMar is expecting to
extract 20 tons of 'ET-743' each year between March and October, as this time
of year seems to be the most productive.

"Ecteinascidea
turbinata" will be on the market by 2002.

Aigua, agua and water

A study done by the water
company Meri Iberica, with the collaboration of Sogesur (one of the main water
supply companies on the island), revealed that the mains water supply system
of Ibiza Town is losing a lot of water, some 700,000 litres a day.

San Antonio, Santa Eulalia
and Formentera all suffer from the same problem. The environmental councillor
Fanny Tur has assured Ibiza residents that "the figures are not alarming,
as it is impossible for a water supply system not to lose any water".

Fanny Tur also made it clear
that, even though Ibiza loses 700 cubic metres of water daily; this figure doesn't
exceed the 15% legal water loss.

"High water pressure
and day to day use causes the mains system to lose high quantities of water
but now, after this study, we all realise how much water we are actually losing,
each Town Hall will be forced to take action".

The
Consell Insular (Island Council) has decided that periodical studies on Ibiza's
water system will now have to be done to insure that the already high figures
don't increase any more.